4 Categories and 12 Steps to Holiness.

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 27 July 2025 by Major M Ramsay

 

The previous few weeks I have been camping with Susan and Heather – and coming back here to work: some weeks I was more with them such as last week and some weeks I was more at work here such the week previous.

 

The themes I have been preaching on lately are what I have been reading about the past few weeks: forgiveness and the Kingdom of God. I have been reading a few books and articles by and about Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He shares some examples about the power one has when they forgive. You can even be free of awful hurts – pain from murder, torture, racism, etc. – by forgiving people who harmed you. Forgiveness can save your mental, emotional and spiritual health.

 

Last week was also one of my favourite recent sermons; I was reading a lot of liberation theologians so I shared some of my ideas of the Kingdom of God – where there are no more wars, no more prisons; where countries take the resources we currently spend on killing other people’s children and use them to save our own and other children instead.

 

This week I have been reading a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous’ 12 steps so I will speak about that. I have often left AA meetings realizing how good a vehicle they are for the gospel and have often quoted them in various sermons.

 

This week I noticed that I could arrange the 12 steps of AA into 4 categories of Salvation; so I will share these and  the12 steps as they relate to Holiness, as I understand them:

 

Category 1 - Steps 1-3: the Sovereignty of God (Jonah 1)

1.     We admitted we were powerless over [sin] — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2.     We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us…

3.     We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

 

I want to share a bit of a miracle related to Category 1, the sovereignty of God – my phone stopped charging on Monday (I need it for work, for a lot); I was camping last week ¾ of an hour west of Langford, past Sooke. I drove a long way to lot of places to see if I could get a tech to help me. I couldn’t. I needed my phone at least for an alarm clock as I had to get up at 3 or 4am Wednesday morning to get here for work. When God placed preaching about  ‘His sovereignty’ on my mind, I prayed for the sovereign God to charge my phone so at least I would have an alarm on Wednesday – and He did! And then it stopped charging again. God does all kinds of big, little and other miracles for His Kingdom and His purposes. (He also used others here to fix my phone on Wednesday too. God is good.)

 

When I think of the sovereignty of God I think of Jonah. We know the story of Jonah. Jonah knows that God can save people from destruction; God asks Jonah to tell Jonah’s enemies how to be saved from destruction – Jonah says ‘no’. Not only that. Jonah says, ‘I am outta here’. God tells Jonah to go to an inland city like Saskatoon or Red Dear and tell them how they can be saved; so, Jonah hops the first boat to Japan. The actual city is Ninevah, in modern day Iraq, and Jonah heads to the Mediterranean Sea, but you get the point. Jonah knows God is sovereign, but Jonah made the mistake of thinking he could thwart that somehow.

 

God then proves He is in charge, of course. When Jonah hops on a boat to run away, God sends a storm and all the people on the boat believe they are going to die; they ask their gods and each other why this is happening; they find out that it is Jonah’s fault; they ask Jonah what to do so that the storm will end; Jonah says ‘kill me’ – really!?! Jonah would rather die that do what God wants him to do. Eventually they do throw him overboard, the storm stops and the other people on the boat are saved; everyone worships God.

 

But of course, God didn’t let Jonah off the hook by letting him die. Much to Jonah’s dismay God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, keep him from the storm for three days. The fish then vomits him on shore and God says [more or less], ‘Jonah now go and do what I told you to do in the first place’. God is sovereign.

 

Step 2: Restoration - Jonah begrudgingly does it, God restores the whole city of Ninevah – nothing is impossible for God

 

Step 3: Turning our will over to God – Jonah never really reaches this stage- Jonah winds up whining and complaining under a branch the Lord gave him; the Lord then took the branch away – and Jonah complained all the more.

 

Better examples of turning our will over to God, repentance, is Terah and Abraham’s family. Terah is Abraham’s dad. They are called by God, in turn, to move to Canaan from Babbel. We remember that story. The people of the earth think they are better than God or at least equal to Him – they don’t even have the understanding of the sovereignty of God that Jonah does. God had told the people to disperse, go and fill the whole earth in Genesis 1 but they decide that they would rather challenge God, stay and build this tower to the heavens and make a name for themselves instead of following God’s direction… God then says, (I’m paraphrasing) challenge accepted. He knows that they cause all these problems working together because they are speaking the same language; so, He confuses their languages – He makes them speak a whole bunch of different languages and since they can’t understand each other the people go to the different areas of the earth like they were told too. Abraham’s family was called to Canaan. Terah, his dad, looks like he started that journey and then gave up. But Abraham repented, turned His will over to God and continued.

 

An even better example is Saul in the NT. He persecuted God’s people: Christians and Greeks (Gentiles). God then strikes him blind while travelling the road to Damascus and God winds up using him as one of the main Christian ministers to the Greeks (Gentiles); as a result of his turning his will over to God, in history we remember him by the Greek version of his name, ‘Paul’, rather than the Hebrew version of his name ‘Saul’

 

Category 2 - Steps 4-7: Confess Our Shortcomings (Galatians 5:19-21)

4.     We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.     Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.     Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.     Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

 

About a month ago of so we preached a number of sermons on Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit vs. the fruit of ourselves, the flesh. During one of those sermons, I told Gerry Fostaty’s story from As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier. I will summarize it here:

 

Gerry was a cadet leader at camp. As part of the camp, the young children he led learned how to use weapons properly and how to take care of the weapons and how the weapons worked and all kinds of things like that.

          In one class, the adult instructor was handing out dummy grenades for the children to examine. The dummy grenades are different from the real grenades: the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the military green of combat weaponry. The cadets, these children were encouraged to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, examine how they work, etc., etc., etc.…

Apparently and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue-coloured grenades was at least one live green grenade. The children were passing this live green grenade – along with the toy grenades – along the line of cadets in the class. They were taking the pin out and placing it back in and they were holding (I don’t know what the term is but…) the safety and disabling and reassembling it along with the coloured grenades and then… one little boy pulled the pin on the live grenade and holding it out too long…

One deadly green grenade had mixed in with the harmless coloured grenades and this one green grenade brought death and destruction with it. The result of this green grenade in the room full of children is essentially the same result as hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and other defects of character wind up in our lives.

 

Therefore, we need to make a moral inventory – we need to find those and other green grenades in our life. We need to point them out to God and someone else. God knows but He likes us to tell Him when we figure things out – because He loves us. We need to realize that we can’t actually get rid of all of these green grenades by ourselves – if we try, they may blow up in any of a myriad of ways. We need to ask God to get rid of the grenades because He really is the only one who can safely do that.

 

Category 3 - Steps 8-11: Keep us Blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

 

Who here has never hurt people? Who here has never made anyone mad at you? I could at this point hand out papers and pens or pencils and ask you to make a list of all the people you have hurt – but we probably don’t have enough time. I probably couldn’t get past Grade 2 by the time our time is up today. (Romans 3:23: for we all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God)

 

Step 9. Make amends where we can – this is important: if you stole 1 million dollars, if you have some way to pay it back, do it. If you don’t’, you can’t. Also, it is suggested that you don’t throw anyone else under the bus. If you robbed a bank or stole from work, you might or might not want to rat out your accomplices and the security guard who was asleep at the desk – but that may cause more harm than good. You would have to figure that out. Adultery is often mentioned here in the literature – if you slept with a married person’s spouse – and it is still unknown years later; you probably don’t want to surprise the spouse and ruin a reconciled marriage just so you can feel good. That would be selfish. Basic rule of thumb: don’t let fear be an excuse to not make amends – always stand up to your fears. But some people get such a high out of confession that they wind up outing other people in the process – this is bad. Don’t make other people’s lives worse so you can feel good.

 

Steps 10 and 11: keep it up! Make a moral inventory (step 4) and keep on making moral inventories. See where those green grenades are. We will each probably make mistakes in the future too. Let us be aware of that and let us confess our sins -mistakes, shortcomings – as they happen. John Wesley did this daily. We should do the same: set up times of prayer, meditation and reflection and confess our mistakes to others, ourselves, and God. Personal devotional time, connecting with God is so important. It is the only way we can ever fully have peace in our lives.

 

Category 4 - Step 12: Evangelize (Matthew 28:18-20)

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to [others], and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 

That is our final step and the last category – Evangelize. I will teach you some Greek. εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) evangelism is the Greek word for ‘Good News’. Evangelism means ‘good news’: When you share good news with some one you are evangelizing them. This is what the word means and that is what it is meant to be. We can be saved from so much here and now and forever: that’s what salvation is; we can share that good news with others: that’s what evangelism is.

 

So today we went through the 12 AA steps, applied them to holiness and organized them into four categories of Salvation. The categories are:

 

Step One: Let us acknowledge the sovereignty of God

Two: Confess our shortcomings

Three: Let God keep us blameless

Four: Evangelise, share the Good News

 

That is my hope. That we will all experience this Holiness, this peace with God as we live out our Salvation both now and forever – and then that we will share the Good News of that possibility and that reality with others so that they can experience the love, joy, hope, and peace of Christ that can get us all through all of the struggles of this life and keep us holy unto eternal life.

 

Let us pray.

 

www.sheepspeak.com

Galatians 5:15-21, Ephesians 4:26-32, Philippians 2:14-16: Green Grenade.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 21 April 2013; Corps 614 Regent Park, 30 August 2015; and TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 08 June 2025 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2025 Version.

 

To view the 2015 version, click here:

http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/08/galatians-519-21-ephesians-427-32.html

 

To read the 2013 original, click here:  

http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/04/galatians-519-21-ephesians-427-32.html 

 

When we served in Swift Current one Sunday my friend, Tim, told me this story about why he was late for church:

 

Very early on Sunday morning before he was up and ready for church, there was a knock on the door of his new place. He had just recently moved in. He gets up, answers the door; it is a police officer. She asks, “Are you Tim?”

“Yes”

“I need you to come with me”, she says.

“Why”

She tells him what it is that he has supposedly done. Tim doesn’t think that this applies to him. As far as he knows he has never been involved in whatever the police officer is talking about but “Okay.” He's still half asleep.

“Go get dressed”, she tells him. He does.

The whole time he is wondering, of course, ‘what is going on?’ As he is getting dressed, he is thinking that there is something not right here; so, as he comes out of his room, fully clothed, he asks her again, “Who are you looking for?”

As they walk out the door, “Tim”, she says.

As they go to the police car, “Tim who?” he says. “What is the last name of the Tim you’re looking for?”

Standing beside the police car, “You tell me your last name first”, she says. He does. “Show me your ID, please”, she says. He does. “Have a nice day, Tim”, she says. He does. Apparently, some other Tim – in whom the police were interested - used to live in this apartment before him; or the new landlord thought he was some other Tim or something like that. That was Tim’s excuse for missing church that day. I thought that was a good excuse.

 

There is a possible case of mistaken identity. In our texts today – especially the one from Galatians. The pericopes we read this morning are all passages from letters that the Apostle Paul has written to the Saints (In the Bible, when we see the word 'Saints' to whom is it referring? Christians). Paul has written these letters to Saints/Christians in various communities he knows well. He is writing these letters to churches he has planted himself. He is writing these letters – in the cases of the Philippians and the Ephesians – to people he loves and respects. And to the Galatians, he writes of their common problem, Galatians 5:19-21:

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

People who indulge in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, Paul says, will not inherit the kingdom of God.[1] This is pretty serious stuff. He is concerned about his friends and congregation members. He is not talking about those who have not claimed that Jesus is Lord (See Mt 7:15-27; cf. Mt 25:31ff.); Paul is writing this letter to and for people in the churches. Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Paul says that those in the Christian churches – who he himself knows and some of these churches he actually planted himself – Paul says to his friends that they should make sure they aren’t mistaken for people who aren’t inheriting the Kingdom who live a life with hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy and the like will not inherit the kingdom of God.[2] This is serious stuff.

 

This can be a real problem too. Paul had to write this similar sentiment in many of his letters, three of which we have read from today. Paul had to warn people who were meeting in the Christian congregations. Paul had to warn the Saints in these Christian communities. Paul had to warn the good guys not to get drawn into this stuff or, he says, they may not even seem like they will inherit the kingdom of God.[3]

 

We know too that just as these things were a temptation for people in the Roman world of the first century, they are also a temptation for people in the English-speaking world today. Who of us hasn’t seen, experienced, or even been tempted ourselves to indulge in hatred (hating someone), discord (not getting along with someone), jealousy, fits of rage (getting angry at people and things), selfish ambition (wanting to be better than someone), dissentions, factions (this includes getting people on your side, gossiping, talking behind people's back), envy, and the like? Here then is Paul’s question for us pertaining to mistaken identity. Have any of us ‘good guys’ as if we are not saints by regularly partake in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like and so are in jeopardy of missing out on the benefits of the Kingdom of God? And if so, what can we do about it?

 

These behaviours can pose a real temptation to draw us away from our relationship with God and our neighbour. We have heard the analogy of yeast working its way through dough. When we are surrounded by all of this bad list stuff, it becomes contagious. We have heard the expression, ‘one bad apple spoils the whole bunch’. This is true. Where one day no one is engaged in discord, dissentions, factions, and the like; then one person indulges him or herself by gossiping with another person who then huddles in a corner with a third person, who then tells someone else about all of their problems with someone (which may or may not even be true!) and then they tell two friends and then they tell two friends and then they tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on and soon the whole congregation and community is full of cliques, factions, whispering, gossiping, fits of rage and the like. I think some of us may have been there before: that is not a good place to be. And that is exactly where some of these first century churches were and that is exactly where some of the 21st century churches appear to be and that is exactly where I would hope and pray that we would never find ourselves (again). Paul describes these things as so bad when they get a hold of us we may be in very real danger of not, as Paul puts it, inheriting the Kingdom of God.

 

The effects of these things - hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like - are disastrous. It is like this: I used to be an RCMP chaplain; One time they flew a number of us in a small RCMP plane, stopping at many small communities to pick up other chaplains so we could go to an RCMP training course in Edmonton. There were many good speakers. The Edmonton ERT (SWAT) Team Leader let us play with some of their ‘toys’ (weapons) and he spoke to us about the importance of chaplains in his job when people are shooting at them and when they have to consider what course of action to take.

 

The keynote speaker that day, Gerry Fostaty, was a fellow who wrote a book entitled, As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier, about an incident that happened to him when he was a teenager in military cadets.[4] He was probably about 19 or 20 and he was a leader of younger cadets – probably Heather’s age or even younger. They were at a cadet camp in Valcartier, Quebec. As part of the camp, they got to play with weapons not entirely unlike we did at the conference in Edmonton. The cadets (even more) learned how to use the weapons properly and how to take care of the weapons and how the weapons worked and all kinds of things like that.

 

In one class, the adult instructor was handing out dummy grenades for the children to examine. The dummy grenades you can apparently tell from the real grenades because the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the military green of combat weaponry. The cadets, these children were encouraged to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, examine how they work, etc., etc., etc…

 

Apparently and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue-coloured grenades was at least one live green grenade. The children were passing this live green grenade – along with the toy grenades – along the line of cadets in the class. They were taking the pin out and placing it back in and they were holding (I don’t know what the term is but…) the safety and disabling and reassembling it along with the coloured grenades and then… one little boy pulled the pin on the live grenade and holding it out too long…

 

The writer of this book was out of the room at the time; he ran in when he heard the explosion and found his little brother who -was not seriously injured- along with many others who were. One deadly green grenade had mixed in with the harmless coloured grenades and this one green grenade brought destruction with it and it brought death with it.

 

The result of this green grenade in the room full of children is essentially the same as what results when hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like wind up in our churches. These are our green grenades. When we put ourselves first, engaging in selfish ambition instead of thinking of others as greater than ourselves (as Paul extols us; Philippians 2) the results are essentially the same.[5] Just as the green grenade brings death when people handle it; if it goes unchecked, Paul reminds us that hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, also bring death to a church and people who are consumed with them. Paul words are ‘they will not inherit the kingdom of God’.

 

So what can we do about this? The Apostle Paul says, in essence, that we should remove the green grenades from the box; we should remove these things from the church. We should, Ephesians 4:31-5:2a:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us…

 

Remove the green grenades before they go off. Paul says, Galatians 5:16, 22-25:

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

 

Remove the green grenades. Paul says, Philippians 2:3-4,12-13:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others... Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.

 

Friends, you are all doing very well. The Lord is calling, equipping and using you to do many great things. So today I will encourage and remind us all, as Paul did 2000 years ago, that selfishness, gossip, slander, talking about others in this way, unforgiveness, pulling each other down instead of building each other up. These are the green grenades that can blow the roof right off the top of any church, even one that to has until now been actively fighting in the good fight. When we think of ourselves as better than others, when we allow ourselves to get worked up about what other people are doing or saying, when we start to talk about others, not forgiving them but tearing them down instead of building them up, that is really our pulling the pin out of a green grenade that the Enemy has tossed into the church.[6] So today I challenge and I encourage each and every one of us here to look for the green grenades in our life and put them aside and in so doing, as TSA doc 10 says, “to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” and as Paul says, Philippians 2:3,4: let us continue to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility [let us] value others above ourselves, not looking to our own interests but each of us to the interests of the others.” As we continue to do this I have every faith that we will all continue to serve our Lord for now and forever in the Kingdom of God

 

Let us pray.

---

[1] Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 10), S. 139: Quoting the Old Testament again, the Septuagint of Psalm 4:4, he says, Be angry but do not sin. The av rendering of the psalm, ‘Stand in awe, and sin not’, gives a different turn to it. The Hebrew verb rāgaz means basically to ‘tremble’, and it could be with fear or rage (BDB). Whichever was the psalmist’s thought, the Septuagint is meaningful and relevant. There is anger which is righteous anger, such as we see in our Lord himself (e.g. Mark 3:5; John 2:13–17); but His anger never led to sin, because His emotions were kept under perfect control.

[2] R. Alan Cole,  Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 9), S. 217: Inherit the kingdom of God; although Paul is emphatic that we cannot by ‘doing’ the works of the law enter our promised inheritance (3:12, 18), but that entry is by faith alone (3:11), yet he strongly asserts here that by ‘doing’ these very different things we can bar ourselves from the kingdom …those who do such things thereby show themselves to be without the transforming gift of faith which leads to the gift of the promised Spirit, which, in turn, leads to the fruits of the Spirit, the seal of our inheritance.

[3] Cf. James Montgomery Boice, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Galatians/Exposition of Galatians/III. The Call to Godly Living (5:1-6:10)/C. Life in the Spirit (5:13-26)/2. The works of the flesh (5:19-21), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Gerry Fostaty, As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2011).

[5] Ralph P. Martin, Philippians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1987 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 11), S. 101: The ethical terms used here expose the spiritual malaise at the heart of the church and point to the all-sufficient remedy. Selfish ambition, eritheia (rv, ‘faction’) is the same word as in 1:17 where it is used to describe the inimical intention of Paul’s enemies. Of the Philippians it is used of party squabbles and petty conceits. We might translate it ‘quarrelsomeness’, although that does not quite convey the hint of self-seeking which the word contains. Such a display which Galatians 5:19–21 brands as an ‘act of the sinful nature’ sadly disfigured the inner life of the church.

[6] Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Letter to the Philippians, NIB XI, 499

Thanksgiving: The Secret to Survival (Philippians 4:4-7, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:17)

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 12 October 2021 (Thanksgiving) by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Thanksgiving in Canada is to a “day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” [1] When we were on the prairies, this took on a whole new meaning to me. We came to know a little more what was meant by planting season and harvesting season and we could even tell you what kind of combine you were driving based on the colour of the vehicle. Thanksgiving for the harvest was a real part of life.

 

            Today, in the context of what is going on in the world and in the Army, I want to spend a little bit of time chatting about the power of a spirit of thanksgiving in our lives. It really is something that God can use to get us through even the darkest of times. This is what a spirit of thanksgiving looks like:

 

• Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
• Ephesians 5:19-20: Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Colossians 3:17: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

For those of us who were here last week, I shared a lot of the anguish and personal struggles that I am still having relating to Covid-19, Vaccine Mandates, The Salvation Army, my responsibilities to God, the Army, and the people under my care.[3] There is more as well.

 

            The previous few weeks have been tough and I know that the past year and a bit has been tough on a lot of people. Orange shirt day the other week was very significant. We marked the truth of a very real tragedy.

 

            The pandemic is not seemingly getting any better. It is still here. People are getting sick. People are dying. People are being discriminated against. People are being persecuted. Community is being destroyed. People are being laid off.

 

There are people who may need to be laid off, put on leave or even fired here. Employees and volunteers are not around. I can’t even hire the people I need to hire now. In some cases people can’t afford to work. I know of one person who is not working because in order to be able to afford dental, he needs to be on social assistance. He is being removed from being able to contribute to the work force, to society as an employee. I know others who simply because they are unable to be vaccinated are being removed from community in that same very way.

 

The debt that our country has acquired during this plague is beyond what can be even understood in terms of trying to pay it back – and the basic needs we will have to go without in the future if that is ever going to happen is terrifying.

 

Violence is really bad both in word and in deed in our world. Social media hate is choking so many people. And hearing from people who live in the US, I get the impression that the violence is so out-of-control down there that it is dangerous to even be outside in the evenings in many of their metropolitan areas.

 

The opioid crisis in BC and Port Alberni is beyond comprehension. I can go on. I won’t. We all know these are scary times. The question is, in these scary, difficult times, how can we get through it? How can we survive?

 

            In these scary times God, through Paul’s letters offers us some ways we can get through this. Paul talks about a spirit of thanksgiving and rejoicing. He offers us this council about how to get through tough times. He says, among other things:

 

• Rejoice always,  
• pray continually,
• Let your gentleness be evident to all
• give thanks in all circumstances.

 

REJOICE ALWAYS

The first secret to surviving difficult times is to rejoice always. If we can find something to rejoice in each day and if we can focus upon that rather than on all the things pulling us down, our spirit we be lifted up and we can get through it.

 

PRAY CONTINUALLY

Another vital key to survival is prayer. Prayer is extremely important. I can’t tell you the number of people I have had the chance to pray with in this last little while: people who are missing loved ones; people who have lost loved ones; people who are concerned about serious health issues - and then there are those who have come to me in much anguish and tears due to discrimination and persecution for their beliefs and -of course, as we are in a pandemic – there are those as well who are afraid for their lives. I thank all those who have been praying for me as well. With all the things that I have had on my heart and mind, I certainly need it. Prayer is vital to survival. As we pray together, we are joined to God with one another in a bond as strength. Let us not stop praying for one another together.

 

BE GENTLE

That brings us to another very important part of living with a spirit of thanksgiving that is key to surviving our struggles in community and even in the Church and that is to be gentle with one another. This can be difficult. By common consent, we are a divided people right now. Name your issue, people are polarized. People are upset. People are angry. People are afraid. Watch the different news channels, scroll through social media. Society is divided. The church is divided. Even clergy and Officers in our own Salvation Army are divided.

 

 I have prayed many times with my colleagues over the previous couple of weeks – more than ever before. Because of this, relating to one issue (Covid-19 and vaccine mandates) in particular, one Officer has recently arranged the opportunity for all of the Officers in BC to come together in a prayer zoom meeting this upcoming week. I hope we do. Prayer is so important – but there have already been some apparently snarky, seemingly self-righteous responses to even that invitation to prayer. This is tragedy. Officers, spiritual leaders we need to be gentle with one another; congregation members, we need to be gentle with one another; staff members, we need to be gentle with one another; family members, we need to be gentle with one another; friends and social media friends, we need to be gentle with one another if we hope to survive. We need to be gentle with one another. We need to be thankful for one another. We need to be thankful for what God is doing through each and everyone of us.

 

BE THANKFUL

The spirit of thankfulness. This spirit of Thanksgiving is so important to our very survival. When everything around us seems to be crashing down and everyone seems to be unkind and violent in thought, word, and deed; it is imperative that we find what is right and thank God for that!  If we only focus on all the trials and tribulations around us, we will be swallowed up by them. If we just look at the storms of life, we will miss the lifeboat. Mark my words, my friends, the chaos of our world is a turbulent as a storm at sea. You or I may even have been tossed overboard and maybe we are gasping for air trying to survive. If we just focus on the waves of all that is going wrong that is all we will see.

 

If we, however quickly, scan the horizon looking for the things God is sending us that can pull us through, we will be okay. Look around: see the miracles that are happening on a daily basis; see the people God is using for good in the world; notice how He is using you and others to help people; It is only when we look for and focus on the good things that God as provided for our salvation that we can grab a hold of them. This is what will create in us a thankful heart and a joyful spirit, this is what will make it so that we don’t need to be anxious in anything.

 

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, I would like to encourage us to look around for the things we can be thankful for, the ways that God is seeing us through the storm and thank Him for them. For if we can thank the Lord for what He is doing in those beside us while the whole world seems to be in chaos, if we can thank the Lord for the daily miracles that we see, if we can thank the Lord for each other and what the Lord is doing through each and every one of us than we might just get through this.

 

Let us pray

 [1] Quote from an act of the Canadian parliament 31 January 1957

BENEDICTION:

Philippians 4:4-7: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

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The Good News of Salvation in Haiku (2 John 6-9, Philippians 2:12&13, 2 Corinthians 6:1-9, 1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24)

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 11 August 2019 by Captain Michael Ramsay and Ryder Reynolds

Today we will look at a number of haikus about Salvation.

The Sprinkler

Refreshing and cool

This hot day the Sprinkler calls

Salvation is here

Salvation is like a sprinkler on a hot day. The warmer the day gets the more we realize the joys of the sprinkler. God provides the Sprinkler of Salvation. He made the Sprinkler (through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus); we did not make it. The sanctified water shoots from the Sprinkler of Salvation that God has provided. You and I are invited to come towards that Sprinkler of Salvation. As we respond to that call we become more and more drenched by the water of Jesus’ love which sprays from the Sprinkler of Salvation. The day remains hot and the hotter it gets the more the Sprinkler beckons (in this analogy, the day does not cool in our lifetime). At times many of us wander to and from that Sprinkler and thus experience more or less the joy of the Sprinkler of Salvation that is available to us all. It is my hope, and indeed the Lord’s desire that none of us should suffer outside of the relief of the Sprinkler of Salvation now and forever.[1]

The Parcel

The perfect present

Is everything you’ve wanted

Salvation is here

Salvation is like a parcel delivered to you on your birthday or other such occasion. In this parcel is something that you have always needed. It was ordered for you at great expense by someone who loves you (Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour). It is yours. As you open it your whole life will change. Joy will fill your heart. If you never open it you will never experience it; if you put it away and stop using it you will no longer experience its joy. Your friend who loves you not only offers it to you, they have already given it to you. It is wrapped and sitting in your hands today. All you need to do is open it.

Abandoned House

Joy beyond belief

Abandoned, left desolate

Sad apostasy

Apostasy is an abandoned house. Once it was beautiful. Once it was loved. Once it was lived in. Once it was alive with love and with life. People were raised here, memories were formed but now the people have left. The love has left. The life has left. It is only a shell and that shell is crumbling more and more each day until someday it may come down.[2] 2 John 2:8, Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

Restored House

Joy, lost and now found

Twice as sweet as it once was

Forgiveness is love

When an abandoned house is repaired brick by brick or plank by plank, the house begins to come to life. As the repaired house is repainted it becomes inviting. As the invitation is accepted, love, life, family, friends and joy return. This is forgiveness. This is Salvation. As we forgive others, our healing becomes like a renovated house, as we accept the Lord’s love and forgiveness, His Spirit dwells in us.

   

 The Book

The book is a jacket

Until it is read and then

It’s an adventure

My family loves reading: my kids, my wife, myself. We all enjoy our books. I think every wall in our house that can have a bookshelf against it, probably does. We have everything from children’s books, to cook books, to music magazines, to theological treaties, to historical documents, and much more. Between us we buy a lot of books. Susan gets a lot of books from Amazon. Every once and a while, I find a classic at the Thrift Store or a used book store for next to nothing. Sometimes I find two or three books at a time. I can only read so many books at once so if I find that when  I have purchased or received more than that at a time, I can put them on a shelf or somewhere else and never read them. The whole time they sit on the shelf they are nothing more than a piece of artwork, a title. It is only when I pick them up and read them that I learn and discover and live what the author wrote for me to experience.

Salvation is the same way. When we open the cover of our relationship with God through prayer and turn the pages of Salvation through Bible study and read the words through listening to and obeying Christ we are filled with all the joy and strength of the book but until then our Salvation is no more experienced than an unread book in a jacket upon a shelf.[3]

  

Marriage

Not just a wedding

and big party, but a life

A real marriage

Salvation is not just saying some words. Salvation is not just uttering a prayer. Salvation is not just getting baptized or taking communion. Salvation is a life that one spends with the Lord for Eternity.

It is like the difference between a wedding and a marriage. A wedding is an event. If the last time that you saw your spouse was on the day you said, ‘I do’ than you may be wed but you certainly never experienced the joys of life with your spouse: you do not have a marriage. But when you and your partner grow together through all of life’s struggles, trials, and celebrations; you become more like your spouse and even know their thoughts.

This is like Salvation, our life with the Lord. The more time we spend with Him the more we experience Him in our life, the more we turn to and rely on him, the more we love Him, the more we experience our salvation.

  

A Walk with a Friend

A walk with a friend

This is true Salvation

A means not an end

Salvation is not merely a state to be obtained. It is a relationship. When we are in relationship with our Lord we experience the joy of Salvation. When one is not in relationship with our Lord one does not experience all the the joys of Salvation. As we continue to walk with the Lord we continue to experience Salvation through all the joys, trials, tribulations, and exhilaration of life.[4]

True Salvation is not merely a heaven that you walk to with your Lord and Saviour. True Salvation is the heaven that you experience while walking with Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour both now and forever.

   

The Good News of Salvation: Doctrines 9 &10

It can continue

The Good News of Salvation

As we walk with God

All of these analogies are true and more. Jesus gives us many metaphors of Salvation in the Gospels. There are some key things that we should probably know and realize in our lives:

1)      Salvation is not merely a final destination; it is a relationship, a journey with our Lord and Saviour. Salvation is us living with and serving our Lord, starting now and with the option to continue forever.

2)      Salvation, Christianity and Holiness are not distinct from each other. They are based on the same word - Hagios; they are one in the same. If you are saved, you are a Christian (Saint), and if you are a Christian (Saint) you are holy. The Bible is very clear that as we spend more time with God, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Him. God changes us; the world doesn't necessarily change, we do.

3)      When we are experiencing the Lord's salvation in our life it does not mean that we will have the perfect life in the sense that nothing troubling will ever happen again. Until Jesus returns, bad things will still happen; sad things will still happen; mad things will still happen; as will perplexing and vexing things. What our Salvation means in the here and now is that in the midst of real life we can experience the peace of Christ and the Joy of the Lord in all our circumstances. And as we do we can be employed by Him to offer the same peace, love, and comfort to all we meet in Jesus' Name. So, let us do just that and…

Let us pray…

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SELECTED RELEVANT SCRIPTURES

2 John 6-9 (NIV):

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Philippians 2:12&13 (NIV):

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Proverbs 10:16 (NIV):

The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

Romans 6:22-23 (NIV):

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord

2 Corinthians 6:1-9 (NIV):

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24 (NIV):

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

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[1]Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998), 73: "...our God-given free will is itself flawed by sin. It cannot operate in true freedom without the grace of God.”

[2] Cf. Samuel Logan Brengle, Heart Talks on Holiness (Atlanta, Georgia: The Salvation Army Supply and Purchasing Department, 1988), 97, 109: “it was for [holiness] we were born and to fall short of this will be infinite, eternal loss, and doom us to an everlasting night of shame and contempt.” “Our walk with Him must be constant…or else we will seek for Him some day and not find Him.”

[3] Cf. Cf. Richard B. Hays, Galatians, in NIB, Vol. 11, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), 328.And James Montgomery Boice, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Galatians/Exposition of Galatians/III. The Call to Godly Living (5:1-6:10)/C. Life in the Spirit (5:13-26)/1. Liberty is not license (5:13-18), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998),85-86: Salvation is neither a state to be preserved nor an insurance policy which requires no further investment. It is the beginning of a pilgrimage with Christ.